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PHYSICAL EDUCATION.
VOL. V. JUNE, 1896. NO.4.
VITALITY AND MODERN LIFE.
LUTHER GULICK, M. D.
. (Concluded)
So far I have spoken of
I. Our increased sensitiveness to en¬vironment.
1. The fact and effect of urbanization¬less vitality, short lived families, specializa¬tion, partial lives, degeneration.
2. School and books-less muscular play for children, less strong and complete development of the nervous system.
3. Machinery takes away muscular work from adults, who are less vigorous as parents.
4. Means of communication increasing, hindranc'es to fast--work removed so we do more work, we think and feel whole world thoughts and pains.
With the extravagance of Max Nordau's logic in his work on degeneration we have no sympathy, but with his manifest keen ability for the observations of facts there can be no dispute, and his statements in regard to the evident decrease or lack of virility in the upper ten thousand in Europe is perhaps not to be doubted; and yet from the evolutionary standpoint this is a most lamentable and serious condition, for it seems as if those for whom evolution had done the most; who had already been re¬moved to the highest pinnacle; whose nervous systems had become able to respond to the most delicate stimuli; who were in a position to do the most in the investigation of science and religion were doomed by this lack of vitality to succumb and yield their places to those who must, like them, be
urged up the ladder of progress, only to find that in the upward progress they have lost that fundamental thing which would have enabled them to make their progress of avail in the further evolution of the race. We believe that if the upper and educated class can but conserve this one element, vitality, they will have that which now leaves them inferior in fitness to live to the public. They need vitality, virility, that rugg-ed inheritance of strength and ability to stand work and strain which the whole trend of the times is against. It is singular and significant that the strain of the times rests heaviest upon that class in society which is least able to stand it, and yet it is this class which the world most needs.
Let us now examine the facts and lines of thought of which we have been speaking with reference to soine possible steps looking to the maintenance of vitality. \Ve are increasingly sensitive to our environment. This is necessary if evolution is to go on, which it must. \Vith increasing complexity in our psychical life, there must be increasing complexity and delicacy in our whole neural organization; this means sensitiveness. \Ve must be able to respond to small stimuli. V\Te must become increasingly complex. Urbanization is also not to be avoided. Men must come close together; the business of the world apparently demands this. Specialization is unavoidable, and, indeed, specialization is desirable, for the history of evolution is an history of increasing special-ization. It must, of course, be a specializa¬tion which shall not interfere with the fundamental conditions of life, but granted fundamental all-round basis for life, there must be increasing specialization. The evils incident to specialization must be met by the broadening of the life outside of one's daily work.

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PHYSICAL EDUCATION.
VOL. V. JUNE, 1896. NO.4.
VITALITY AND MODERN LIFE.
LUTHER GULICK, M. D.
. (Concluded)
So far I have spoken of
I. Our increased sensitiveness to en¬vironment.
1. The fact and effect of urbanization¬less vitality, short lived families, specializa¬tion, partial lives, degeneration.
2. School and books-less muscular play for children, less strong and complete development of the nervous system.
3. Machinery takes away muscular work from adults, who are less vigorous as parents.
4. Means of communication increasing, hindranc'es to fast--work removed so we do more work, we think and feel whole world thoughts and pains.
With the extravagance of Max Nordau's logic in his work on degeneration we have no sympathy, but with his manifest keen ability for the observations of facts there can be no dispute, and his statements in regard to the evident decrease or lack of virility in the upper ten thousand in Europe is perhaps not to be doubted; and yet from the evolutionary standpoint this is a most lamentable and serious condition, for it seems as if those for whom evolution had done the most; who had already been re¬moved to the highest pinnacle; whose nervous systems had become able to respond to the most delicate stimuli; who were in a position to do the most in the investigation of science and religion were doomed by this lack of vitality to succumb and yield their places to those who must, like them, be
urged up the ladder of progress, only to find that in the upward progress they have lost that fundamental thing which would have enabled them to make their progress of avail in the further evolution of the race. We believe that if the upper and educated class can but conserve this one element, vitality, they will have that which now leaves them inferior in fitness to live to the public. They need vitality, virility, that rugg-ed inheritance of strength and ability to stand work and strain which the whole trend of the times is against. It is singular and significant that the strain of the times rests heaviest upon that class in society which is least able to stand it, and yet it is this class which the world most needs.
Let us now examine the facts and lines of thought of which we have been speaking with reference to soine possible steps looking to the maintenance of vitality. \Ve are increasingly sensitive to our environment. This is necessary if evolution is to go on, which it must. \Vith increasing complexity in our psychical life, there must be increasing complexity and delicacy in our whole neural organization; this means sensitiveness. \Ve must be able to respond to small stimuli. V\Te must become increasingly complex. Urbanization is also not to be avoided. Men must come close together; the business of the world apparently demands this. Specialization is unavoidable, and, indeed, specialization is desirable, for the history of evolution is an history of increasing special-ization. It must, of course, be a specializa¬tion which shall not interfere with the fundamental conditions of life, but granted fundamental all-round basis for life, there must be increasing specialization. The evils incident to specialization must be met by the broadening of the life outside of one's daily work.